July 13, 2012 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Import prices decrease in June 2012

Import prices decreased 2.7 percent in June, after declining 1.2 percent and 0.1 percent during the previous 2 months. Declines in both fuel and nonfuel imports contributed to the overall decline, the largest drop in fuel prices since 2008.

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Fuel import prices declined 10.1 percent in June, following a 4.6-percent decrease in May and a 0.8-percent drop in April. The June decline in import fuel prices was the largest one-month drop in the index since December 2008. Petroleum prices decreased by 10.5 percent in June, offsetting the 7.4-percent increase in natural gas prices. Fuel prices fell 12.0 percent for the year ended in June, including a 10.7-percent drop in petroleum prices and a 44.7-percent decline in natural gas prices.

The price index for nonfuel imports also fell in June, decreasing 0.3 percent. Each of the major end-use categories recorded declines in June.

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The price index for U.S. exports also declined in June, falling by 1.7 percent. This was the largest monthly decrease since October 2011. U.S. export prices also fell overall for the year ending in June, decreasing by 2.1 percent.

Agricultural prices fell 4.0 percent in June, the first monthly decrease since February, and the largest monthly drop since October 2011. The June decrease was driven by a 9.0-percent decline in soybean prices, an 8.3-percent fall in corn prices, and a 14.3-percent drop in cotton prices. Overall agricultural prices also decreased for the year ended in June, declining 6.1 percent.

Prices for nonagricultural exports decreased 1.4 percent after falling 0.6 percent in May.

These data are from the BLS International Price program. Import and export price data are subject to revision. For more information, see "U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes — June 2012" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-12-1381.

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